For information on this subject, reference may for example be made to document FR A 2 913 838, which describes a dynamic control method for controlling the number of data flows passing through a network architecture.
Computer networks are used first and foremost to exchange data between computers. These networks have developed considerably in recent years. An ever-increasing amount of data is exchanged each day using such networks.
When data needs to be transferred, from one person to another, one location to another, or one machine to another, for example, the use of a computer network is increasingly preferred to other types of exchanges, for example the physical transmission of the memory medium, such as a compact disc.
Owing to the increase in hardware processing and storage capacities, it has become possible to transmit larger quantities of data over these networks. It has been observed that the quantity of data exchanged during a same transfer has increased considerably in recent years, and will probably continue to do so. Today, a transfer may concern a significant amount of data, in the vicinity of one hundred megabytes or even a gigabyte.
The significance, in quantity, of a data transfer is usually assessed as a function of the theoretical performance of the network in terms of bandwidth, as well as the time the user anticipates will be necessary to perform the transfer.
Network performance is traditionally compared to the performance of the hardware making up the network connection(s). For a purely local network, for example, these are the network cards of the concerned computers, the switch/router used, and the cables. Furthermore, specifications exist for this hardware, which determine its maximum operating bandwidth. Thus for example, there are “Fast Ethernet” network cards, i.e. capable of reaching a bandwidth of 100 Mb/s, or “Gigabit Ethernet” cards capable of reaching a bandwidth of 1 Gb/s. For a network extending at least partially over the Internet, it is the Internet connection bandwidth that will generally be considered, for example between 20 and 30 Mb/s for general public ADSL connections or 100 Mb/s for fiber optic connections.
The development of computer networks has been accompanied by an increase in the performance of the available network equipment, in particular relative to the bandwidth.
An increase in the performance level of data transfers by networks, resulting from the improvements to the equipment, was therefore expected.
However, in practice, although such a performance gain has in fact been observed, it has nevertheless remained much lower than the anticipated bandwidths, even taking into account that for this new equipment, as for the older equipment, the theoretical bandwidths are only achieved exceptionally.
In other words, the transition from a traditional infrastructure to a very high bandwidth infrastructure today does not make it possible to obtain the expected throughput values for users.
The Applicant intends to improve the situation.